Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Hump Day!

In reading we examined how the author presents the setting in the book Where the River Begins. Then the students wrote about the setting, using examples from the text, in their RRJs.

Reading groups:Cheetahs: Reviewed unknown words and began orally reading text. Students finished independently at their seats.Crabs: Reviewed unknown words and began reading orally. Students finished independently.

In math we identified and extended increasing numeric patterns. I worked with two small groups. One group practiced rounding three digit numbers to the nearest hundred. The other group practiced rounding three digit numbers to the nearest 10. There is an increasing pattern worksheet for homework. We will have a quiz on Friday.

After math we had a class meeting. We began with each student completing the statement, "It frustrates me when..." After sharing various compliments, we discussed the idea of scapegoating others based on past behavior.

Following lunch and recess the students were shown how to create a flow chart, a web and a word/picture splash to organize and brainstorm their thoughts for a writing piece. I used the same topic (subject) for each of the three organizers so they could see how the same story could be planned in different ways. Then the students continued their independent work from the morning AND created a graphic organizer for their next writing piece while I met with reading groups.

Reading Groups:Lions: we discussed how Josh changes in the story and found the evidence in the text that shows how he feels in the beginning and the end of the story.

Bears: We met and finished read the book and then discussed how Sol changed.

We ended the day by going to the computer lab and learning how to change the font in a Word document.

I will be out tomorrow...my husband is having back surgery...so no blog update. I plan to return on Friday!!